André Villas-Boas: “It’s not playing the victim, it’s historical awareness” | OneFootball

In the latest edition of Dragões magazine, André Villas-Boas delivered a message of ambition for the start of the new season.

“The season starts now. It brings new ambitions, new players, new projects, and difficulties we know well. We know that, in order to achieve our goals, we will often have to work harder, fight harder, and stay more united than others. This is not victimhood. It is historical awareness. It is knowing who we are, what we represent, and what has always been demanded of us. We want a great season. We want to honor the titles we have won without living off them. We want to defend FC Porto with rigor, courage, and commitment. And we want to once again give our Members and Supporters the joys their effort deserves. Everything begins again. Except our hunger to win,” noted the president of the national champions, calling for standards to remain high, with the Super Cup already on the horizon.

“Last season ended with titles, celebrations, and moments that will remain forever in our memory. But no previous achievement wins the next match. No trophy gives us an advantage in the first duel. No celebration replaces the work that lies ahead of us once again. We enter the new season with renewed expectations, but with the same commitment as always: to win. A commitment that demands rigor in our processes, intensity in our work, discipline, the ability to overcome, and the constant awareness that the whole will always be greater than each of its parts,” AVB stresses.

“The Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup marks the first official moment of the season. And it begins straight away with a final. On the other side will be Torreense, a team that surprised the country, but certainly did not surprise itself. They won the Portuguese Cup with courage, organization, and belief that allowed them to achieve an unprecedented feat in Portuguese football. Their journey deserves respect and tells us everything about the difficulty we will face in Coimbra. There is no room for distractions, ease, or confidence built on what we did in the past. We will take to the field aware of our responsibility, the quality of our opponent, and the demands of a final. We want to win the Super Cup, but we know we can only do so with maximum concentration, collective spirit, and a level of commitment worthy of the symbol we represent,” the Porto president continues.

Villas-Boas also underlines that the “unity that marked FC Porto’s last season” will have to be “rebuilt” daily: “The unity that defined us last season cannot merely be remembered. It has to be rebuilt every day. In the dressing room, at Olival, at the Dragão, in the Board, in the Administration, in every department and in every stand. It was together that we achieved success, and it will be together that we fight for it again.”

The three additions to the first team and a message to young players such as… Cardoso Varela

In the same editorial, André Villas-Boas welcomes the already confirmed signings, both for the first team and the B team.

“We welcome Inbeom Hwang and João Afonso, players who arrive with quality, ambition, and the desire to establish themselves at FC Porto. We also welcome back André Silva, nine years after leaving the home where he grew up and where his journey began. Returning to FC Porto is going back to a familiar place, but it is also taking on a new responsibility toward his boyhood club, a new group, and renewed objectives,” notes the top figure of the Dragons.

“Mame Niang, Eirik Granaas, and Cardoso Varela represent another dimension of the work we are developing. They are young players, with talent and potential, whom we see as part of FC Porto’s future. We do not place the burden of premature promises on them. We give them structure, support, demands, and the opportunity to grow. Talent opens doors, but only work, character, and the ability to understand what it means to be Porto allow you to walk through them. To everyone who arrives, a simple message: you are joining a champion club, but you inherit no victories. You will have to earn your place, respect our values, and understand that wearing this shirt is a privilege accompanied by daily demands,” Villas-Boas emphasizes.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.